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Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System
The United States holds the dubious distinction of having the most unequal income distribution of any advanced industrialized nation. While other developed countries face similar challenges from globalization and technological change, none rivals America’s singularly poor record for equitably distributing the benefits and burdens of recent economic shifts. In Categorically Unequal, Douglas Massey weaves together history, political economy, and even neuropsychology to provide a comprehensive explanation of how America’s culture and political system perpetuates inequalities between different segments of the population.
Categorically Unequal is striking both for its theoretical originality and for the breadth of topics it covers. Massey argues that social inequalities arise from the universal human tendency to place others into social categories. In America, ethnic minorities, women, and the poor have consistently been the targets of stereotyping, and as a result, they have been exploited and discriminated against throughout the nation’s history. African-Americans continue to face discrimination in markets for jobs, housing, and credit. Meanwhile, the militarization of the US-Mexican border has discouraged Mexican migrants from leaving the United States, creating a pool of exploitable workers who lack the legal rights of citizens. Massey also shows that women’s advances in the labor market have been concentrated among the affluent and well-educated, while low-skilled female workers have been relegated to occupations that offer few chances for earnings mobility. At the same time, as the wages of low-income men have fallen, more working-class women are remaining unmarried and raising children on their own. Even as minorities and women continue to face these obstacles, the progressive legacy of the New Deal has come under frontal assault. The government has passed anti-union legislation, made taxes more regressive, allowed the real value of the federal minimum wage to decline, and drastically cut social welfare spending. As a result, the income gap between the richest and poorest has dramatically widened since 1980. Massey attributes these anti-poor policies in part to the increasing segregation of neighborhoods by income, which has insulated the affluent from the social consequences of poverty, and to the disenfranchisement of the poor, as the population of immigrants, prisoners, and ex-felons swells.
America’s unrivaled disparities are not simply the inevitable result of globalization and technological change. As Massey shows, privileged groups have systematically exploited and excluded many of their fellow Americans. By delving into the root causes of inequality in America, Categorically Unequal provides a compelling argument for the creation of a more equitable society.
A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation's Centennial Series
Categorically Unequal is striking both for its theoretical originality and for the breadth of topics it covers. Massey argues that social inequalities arise from the universal human tendency to place others into social categories. In America, ethnic minorities, women, and the poor have consistently been the targets of stereotyping, and as a result, they have been exploited and discriminated against throughout the nation’s history. African-Americans continue to face discrimination in markets for jobs, housing, and credit. Meanwhile, the militarization of the US-Mexican border has discouraged Mexican migrants from leaving the United States, creating a pool of exploitable workers who lack the legal rights of citizens. Massey also shows that women’s advances in the labor market have been concentrated among the affluent and well-educated, while low-skilled female workers have been relegated to occupations that offer few chances for earnings mobility. At the same time, as the wages of low-income men have fallen, more working-class women are remaining unmarried and raising children on their own. Even as minorities and women continue to face these obstacles, the progressive legacy of the New Deal has come under frontal assault. The government has passed anti-union legislation, made taxes more regressive, allowed the real value of the federal minimum wage to decline, and drastically cut social welfare spending. As a result, the income gap between the richest and poorest has dramatically widened since 1980. Massey attributes these anti-poor policies in part to the increasing segregation of neighborhoods by income, which has insulated the affluent from the social consequences of poverty, and to the disenfranchisement of the poor, as the population of immigrants, prisoners, and ex-felons swells.
America’s unrivaled disparities are not simply the inevitable result of globalization and technological change. As Massey shows, privileged groups have systematically exploited and excluded many of their fellow Americans. By delving into the root causes of inequality in America, Categorically Unequal provides a compelling argument for the creation of a more equitable society.
A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation's Centennial Series
340 pages, Hardcover
First published April 2, 2007
19 people are currently reading
299 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 28, 2020
作者认为美国社会的分层界限包括种族、阶层和性别。
分层的具体运行有更加复杂的机制，首先是frame，人们依照warm和competent两个维度划分你我，与自己相似的是in-group，被归为wc双高的象限；高w低c的群体是被同情的out-group，比如残疾人、穷人、女性等；低w高c的群体是被嫉妒的out-group，比如某些地方的华人；wc双低的完全是被鄙视的非我族类，比如美国黑人。鄙视这种情绪使得剥削被鄙视群体更加心安理得。
下一步的分层就是这种思维框架下，如何操作使得不同boundary的人们获得“匹配的”物质、符号（如声望）、情感资源，万变不离其宗的做法则是exploitation和opportunity hoarding，前者是一部分群体对另一部分群体资源的掠夺，后者是一部分群体排除异己地独占某些机会，全书分章节介绍了导致非裔、拉丁裔、穷人甚至中产、女性被不平等对待的机制运作历史、现状。
可悲可怕的是，由于emulation和adaptation效应，社会分层导致的歧视和社会排斥会顽固地存在。
分层的具体运行有更加复杂的机制，首先是frame，人们依照warm和competent两个维度划分你我，与自己相似的是in-group，被归为wc双高的象限；高w低c的群体是被同情的out-group，比如残疾人、穷人、女性等；低w高c的群体是被嫉妒的out-group，比如某些地方的华人；wc双低的完全是被鄙视的非我族类，比如美国黑人。鄙视这种情绪使得剥削被鄙视群体更加心安理得。
下一步的分层就是这种思维框架下，如何操作使得不同boundary的人们获得“匹配的”物质、符号（如声望）、情感资源，万变不离其宗的做法则是exploitation和opportunity hoarding，前者是一部分群体对另一部分群体资源的掠夺，后者是一部分群体排除异己地独占某些机会，全书分章节介绍了导致非裔、拉丁裔、穷人甚至中产、女性被不平等对待的机制运作历史、现状。
可悲可怕的是，由于emulation和adaptation效应，社会分层导致的歧视和社会排斥会顽固地存在。
October 4, 2007
this is not a soc text. it is oriented to general audiences and shows how we cognitively construct categories of inequality from some deep psychological place that we then socially structure through systems that favor our in-group. depressing but compelling.
August 31, 2018
Excellent book, though it's really dense with information--be warned, this is essentially a textbook, and it may take a while to get through. There's also lots of charts and graphs to look at, all of which go quite well to back up the author's points.
Basically, if you want the ultimate overview of how American society became so steeped in inequality, this is the best guide you could ask for. It was written ten years ago, so it's not entirely up-to-date, but all the history and research discussed within is still incredibly relevant. He discusses race, gender, and class--the three great stratification mechanisms of America--and gives a great overview of exactly how our society came to be so divided and unequal in these regards, as well as how it's fluctuated over time. It's a must-read not only for understanding how we got here, but for ideas on how we can get out--it really was human decisions that set up our society as it is now, and it's human decisions that can potentially change it.
Basically, if you want the ultimate overview of how American society became so steeped in inequality, this is the best guide you could ask for. It was written ten years ago, so it's not entirely up-to-date, but all the history and research discussed within is still incredibly relevant. He discusses race, gender, and class--the three great stratification mechanisms of America--and gives a great overview of exactly how our society came to be so divided and unequal in these regards, as well as how it's fluctuated over time. It's a must-read not only for understanding how we got here, but for ideas on how we can get out--it really was human decisions that set up our society as it is now, and it's human decisions that can potentially change it.
August 20, 2020
I read this book for one of my sociology classes. Often when I read books for school, I find that although the subject matter is relevant, I'm just not that interested. This book, however, I found fascinating. Massey did an excellent job balancing statistical data and storytelling, allowing me to see data trends while avoiding the feeling that I was looking at one big research study. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in learning more about how and why America is so stratified. Massey covers major events in stratification along lines of race, gender, and class. It was a relatively easy to understand book that kept me hooked.
July 30, 2020
Massey's book takes a broad stroke at the history of inequality in America, weaving together a narrative in which social change, resources, politics, and enduring prejudice combine to produce a nation wholly unique in our modern levels of economic and social inequality. This book is a critical read, approachable, and full of excellent research and source materials.
August 13, 2017
Excellent overview aimed at general readers
March 2, 2020
If you want to know the real underlying issues of American society, this is a good book to start.
October 11, 2022
Had to read for class but really enjoyed it and have brought it up in several conversations!
February 5, 2008
Another triumph of synthesis and sociological analysis from Douglas S. Massey, who is quickly becoming one of my heroes. In this book, he examines the ways that race, class, and gender play into the stratification of American society.
One of the main insights I drew from the book is that the main categories addressed in diversity workshops really do correspond to structural mechanisms in society that disadvantage some and favor others--and that these mechanisms have a definite attitudinal component, so working to make people aware of stereotypes and prejudices is a worthy project. The structural mechanisms that perpetuate inequality along categorical lines are broad in their workings, and thus the situations of individuals are always more complicated than the overall trends; but on a broad governmental level, policies can be designed either to mitigate or exacerbate these systems of inequality. Under Republicans since the 1970s, policies are generally designed to exacerbate inequality and favor the rich.
Here are some other facts and arguments, coming more directly from the book, that I found noteworthy:
1) African Americans were intentionally excluded from the benefits of the New Deal
2) the South left the Democratic Party when the Civil Rights Act came along and Johnson's Great Society programs included blacks in the welfare state, breaking apart the New Deal consensus that had reduced inequality from around 1930 to the late 1960s.
3) Rising inequality is reliably associated with Republican administrations, and it is also associated with political polarization.
4) The current mass incarceration of African American males started with Nixon's War on Crime, which was a reaction to Johnson's War on Poverty that changed the focus of the criminal justice system from rehabilitation to punishment and preyed on racial fears to further pry apart the New Deal consensus.
5) That incarceration is also significantly responsible for the higher rate of AIDS infection about African Americans.
6) The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) backfired by encouraging Mexican migrant workers to stay in the US and, once here, bring in family members either legally or illegally. Thus a itinerant work force (itself part of an exploitative system) was turned into a permanent and largely disenfranchised work force.
7) The feminist revolution has generally worked to the benefit of upper class women but to the detriment of working class women.
8) Ronald Reagan's changes to the tax code dramatically increased the take-home pay of the wealthy, modestly increased that of the affluent, and actually lowered that of the poor.
9) Before taxes, America's income inequality is roughly the same as other industrialized countries; after taxes, our income inequality is the greatest in the world.
These are just some things that hit me particularly forcefully. The book is full of fascinating insights and stunning in its scope.
Go Obama!
One of the main insights I drew from the book is that the main categories addressed in diversity workshops really do correspond to structural mechanisms in society that disadvantage some and favor others--and that these mechanisms have a definite attitudinal component, so working to make people aware of stereotypes and prejudices is a worthy project. The structural mechanisms that perpetuate inequality along categorical lines are broad in their workings, and thus the situations of individuals are always more complicated than the overall trends; but on a broad governmental level, policies can be designed either to mitigate or exacerbate these systems of inequality. Under Republicans since the 1970s, policies are generally designed to exacerbate inequality and favor the rich.
Here are some other facts and arguments, coming more directly from the book, that I found noteworthy:
1) African Americans were intentionally excluded from the benefits of the New Deal
2) the South left the Democratic Party when the Civil Rights Act came along and Johnson's Great Society programs included blacks in the welfare state, breaking apart the New Deal consensus that had reduced inequality from around 1930 to the late 1960s.
3) Rising inequality is reliably associated with Republican administrations, and it is also associated with political polarization.
4) The current mass incarceration of African American males started with Nixon's War on Crime, which was a reaction to Johnson's War on Poverty that changed the focus of the criminal justice system from rehabilitation to punishment and preyed on racial fears to further pry apart the New Deal consensus.
5) That incarceration is also significantly responsible for the higher rate of AIDS infection about African Americans.
6) The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) backfired by encouraging Mexican migrant workers to stay in the US and, once here, bring in family members either legally or illegally. Thus a itinerant work force (itself part of an exploitative system) was turned into a permanent and largely disenfranchised work force.
7) The feminist revolution has generally worked to the benefit of upper class women but to the detriment of working class women.
8) Ronald Reagan's changes to the tax code dramatically increased the take-home pay of the wealthy, modestly increased that of the affluent, and actually lowered that of the poor.
9) Before taxes, America's income inequality is roughly the same as other industrialized countries; after taxes, our income inequality is the greatest in the world.
These are just some things that hit me particularly forcefully. The book is full of fascinating insights and stunning in its scope.
Go Obama!
April 14, 2013
The continuing examination of ways in which persons in U.S. society experience discrimination and exploitation is a contributor to social and political polarization. In this book, Massey draws extensively on social science research to lay out the complex ways our society has developed and continues to preserve socioeconomic stratification along the three intersecting lines of race, class and gender. Unlike other works investigating discrimination, this study begins with attention to a theory of stratification that locates the situation in the U.S. in the context of historic patterns of inequality and exploitation.
February 22, 2009
Massey does an excellent job of explaining how humans psychological make up creates institutions they continue a cycle of inequality. He starts with the birth of civilization (invention of agriculture) but then jumps to the 20th century and shows how even when government is at is best trying to minimize inequality with programs like Social Security there are still groups who are left out intentionally.
May 5, 2017
This is one of my favorite textbooks I have had to read in my schooling so far. I liked that it covered a variety of different areas of inequality and although that hinders from diving too deeply into each area, it was still fulfilling. I liked the writing style and the information was presented in a good manner.
February 18, 2013
If you have any interest in why inequality is so persistent in the U.S. as well as why the U.S. is more unequal than so many other countries, this is a really readable book that provides both data and theory. While this is a complex topic, Massey's writing is very clear and easy to follow.
January 9, 2010
Kind of a tour de force summation of why everything sucks. Using numbers.
August 23, 2016
This was a fascinating look at people's innate prejudices, but I could not finish it since it was so dry and extremely difficult to read.
May 15, 2012
Imminently tweetable and reads very quickly.
December 18, 2012
Basically Tilly with numbers. Clearly and elegantly written, though. Definitely a useful book to come back to for the citations.
September 16, 2016
He basically reiterates Tilly's theory. Additionally, his critique of gender is severely lacking.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews